


Longhorn, Longhorn

by house_of_lantis



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M, college!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-15
Updated: 2011-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-26 02:51:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/277860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/house_of_lantis/pseuds/house_of_lantis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Did you just pimp me out to the star basketball player!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Longhorn, Longhorn

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myloveshine](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=myloveshine).



> Older fic archiving to AO3 from LJ.

**University of Texas at Dallas, Texas**

 _The eyes of Texas are upon you,  
All the live long day.  
The eyes of Texas are upon you,  
You cannot get away.  
Do not think you can escape them,  
At night, or early in the morn'.  
The eyes of Texas are upon you,  
Till Gabriel blows his horn!_

 

Jared Padalecki was the star point guard of the Longhorns mens basketball team. A junior, he was already being scouted by the NBA and there was always talk of Jared going pro once he graduated from school. He had racked up a long list of awards: Academic All-American, Unanimous First-team All-Big 12 guard, Consensus First-team All-American guard, the prestigious Bob Cousy Award (only 5 others had ever won the award). There was no doubt that he’d be snapped up in the 1st round NBA draft.

Jensen rolled his eyes, standing in front of the trophy case in the athletic building, looking at the various photographs of Jared along the walls. He sighed, checking his watch. His editor, Welling, had set up the interview and forced Jensen into writing up the article.

“Ackles, you’re the best reporter on the Mercury.”

“Fuck off, Tommy,” Jensen growled, hunched over his laptop in the UTD Mercury newspaper’s offices. “I cover the administration and politics. Nowhere does it say that I cover sports or overrated athletes.”

“Come on, Jenny, you know you want to. Padalecki is fucking gorgeous and he’s out and proud. He’s going to be the next big thing – and you can get him at the start,” Tom said, snickering.

Jensen pushed his wire framed glasses up his nose and glared at him. “Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean that I want to fuck every other gay guy around.”

Tom laughed, throwing back his head. He patted Jensen roughly on the back and tossed the sheet of paper on top of the laptop keyboard. “So you say, Jen; the interview’s yours. Padalecki will meet you in the athletic building at 2 o’clock. You better be there.” Tom winked at him. “And you can thank me later.”

It was 2:14 and Jensen hated tardiness. He tapped his messenger bag, considering if he’d be able to deal with Welling’s non-stop bullshit about skipping out on the interview. Jensen pulled off his glasses and cleaned the smudged lens with the tail of his button down shirt.

“Hey!”

He looked up at the sound of the deep voice echoing down the hallway, the squeak of high tops on the floor. Jensen squinted a little bit, making out a tall guy with a lot of brown hair jogging down the hall towards him. He slipped the glasses on and stared at Jared Padalecki.

Tall was the first word that popped into his head. Jensen was no shorty at six-one, but Padalecki made him feel like a midget. Gorgeous was the second word that popped in, but Jensen killed it before he could connect the dots. Dimples was the third. He wasn’t Jensen’s type at all.

“Hey, were you waiting long? Sorry about that, man. The coach was talking to me about last night’s game and I lost track of time.”

“Um, it’s all right,” he said, trying to inject some kind of polite cheerfulness into his voice. He needn’t bother as Padalecki was all smiles, dimples, and overactive long limbs.

“Cool! I’m Jared!”

Jensen found himself pressed against Jared’s broad chest at the junior wrapped him in a hug. His glasses pressed against his eyes and cheeks and Jensen struggled to be free of Jared. He pulled off his glasses again and wiped them clean on his shirt.

“Come on, let’s go to the diner and we can talk and get some food at the same time,” Jared said, making his way to the front doors of the athletic building.

“I just—“ Jensen started, putting his glasses back on.

“Person’s gotta eat, right?” Jared said, opening the door and propping it open with his shoulder. He grinned at Jensen again. “Come on, man, I’ll buy you a beer.”

“Listen, I’m just here to do the interview and—“

“Yeah, Tommy said,” Jared murmured, nodding. “Come on, dude, I’m starving and you look like you could use a drink.”

Jensen sighed, clucking his tongue against his teeth, and followed Jared out the doors.

***

The Mercury Diner was a famous spot for UT students. Jared walked in and it seemed like everyone in there knew him. Jensen watched as Jared made his way down the aisle, hugging people, bumping chests, slapping hands, and waving to the kitchen staff. He called out people by name, gave the pretty girls kisses on the cheek, and somehow, the crowded diner seemed to have an empty booth for him in the back.

“It’s a lot quieter back here,” Jared said, slipping into the booth seat so that his back was to the rest of the diner. “You have got to try the burger and the cherry pie here.”

Jensen slipped off his messenger bag and tossed it into the booth, sitting down. “I have been here before, Padalecki.”

“Jared – call me Jared.” He grinned at Jensen and then stretched, looking over his shoulder. “Hey Lorna! Two double burgers with the works, two side of fries, and two beers, please!”

“You got it, hon.”

“And we’ll have cherry pie and coffee later!”

Jensen stared at him, looking over the rim of his wire frames. “Dude, did you just order for me?”

“You look like a burger and beer kind of guy,” Jared said and then frowned slightly. “Did you want something else? I mean, I can get Lorna to—“

“That’s fine,” Jensen snapped, opening his bag and pulling out a steno notebook and pen. He cleared his throat and set the notepad on the table in front of hi. “So, um, Jared…there’s a lot of talk that you’ll go pro after graduation. Have you given some thought to what team you’d like to play for?”

Jared hooked his arm on the back of the booth and gave Jensen a long look. “Are you dating anybody? Tommy said that you were gay and single—“

“Let’s just keep this professional, shall we?”

“How about for every question I answer, you answer one of mine?” Jared said, leaning towards him. “Or the deal’s off and I won’t give the Mercury an interview.”

Jensen frowned at him. “That’s a real asshole thing to do, Padalecki.”

Jared shrugged. “Maybe I’d just like to get to know the person who’s going to be writing about me, that’s all.”

“I think there’s a difference from getting to know someone and trying to force answers to personal questions,” Jensen growled at him, keeping his voice low.

“Suit yourself,” Jared said, breezily.

Jensen picked up his steno and started to shove it into his bag, preparing to get the hell out of there. He had never met a more arrogant, pretentious asshole before – and he interview politicians and school administrators!

“Tommy said that if you didn’t deliver the interview, he’d ban you from writing anymore articles for the rest of the year.”

“Fuck you, he did not.”

“Call him,” Jared said, smiling widely. “Go ahead, I got time.”

Jensen pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. The little fuck wanted to play, Jensen would play. He pulled his cell phone from his bag and flipped it open with his thumb, scrolling down quickly to find Tom’s number. He hit the call button and then pressed the cell to his ear.

The phone rang twice. “Jenny, you hook up with Jay?”

“Did you tell him that if I don’t write up this interview that you’d ban me from writing articles for the rest of the year?”

Tom laughed, throatily. “I might have. I thought he might need some leverage. Dude, you must be playing hard to get for him to play his Ace already.”

“Fuck! Why?”

“Because you need to get laid.”

Jensen glared at Jared who was pretending not to listen. “Did you just pimp me out to the star basketball player!”

He really didn’t intend to be so loud, but Jensen was about to crack. He ignored all the looks that came his way – he especially ignored Jared’s smug grin.

“It’s more like I pimped Jared out to you, Jenny. Have a good night. I want to hear all about it tomorrow.”

“Listen, you ass—“ Jensen took a breath. Welling had hung up on him. He closed his cell phone and tossed it back into his bag. “Shit.”

Jared leaned across the table and grinned at Jensen. “You don’t have to answer the questions that are too personal; I just like throwing them out there.”

“You’re a douche bag.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jared said, nodding. “So, you wanna start?”

“What makes you think that I’m going to even give you any kind of proper answer?”

Jared smirked. “I’m counting on you being a Texas gentleman and a man of your word.”

Jensen really wanted to roll his eyes; but at the same time, Padalecki played the Texan card and no self respecting Texan was going to let a punk talk smack about his word and reputation. Jensen clicked his pen and glared up at Jared.

“Any thought to going pro and what team do you want to play?”

Jared tapped his fingers on the countertop. “I have thought about going pro after graduation. I’d like to play for the Spurs because San Antonio’s my hometown.” He grinned at Jensen. “Are you single? Seeing anyone?”

“No comment,” Jensen said, trying to hide a little smirk and failing completely.

Jared laughed good-naturedly. “All right, you got me. Shoot.”

“This season, you played your weakest game facing off with Texas A&M at 88 to 61—“

“It wouldn’t be democratic to have a zero loss winning streak,” he replied, amused.

“What was your impression of the game?”

Jared scratched his chin. “Well, I don’t have any excuse. Our team is strong, but we can’t be flawless every night. We play the game to have a good time; and if we win, then yeah, that’s great. But is it something that I think about and lose sleep over? Nah, man, it’s just basketball.”

“Some would say that’s blasphemy.”

Jared just grinned and placed his hands on the table, leaning closer towards Jensen. “Can I suck your cock, Jensen?”

“What?”

“I bet you make a lot of noise when you come,” Jared murmured, looking at Jensen. “I bet you haven’t had your cock worshipped, teased until you think you’re going to lose your mind. I bet I could deep throat you.” Jensen knew he was blushing hotly and dropped his eyes from Jared’s lips. “I bet you’d taste so good.”

Jensen flipped through the pages of his steno. “You…you carry a 4.0 GPA. Have you thought of doing something besides pro basketball?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“No comment,” Jensen said, nearly choking on his words. He glanced up at Jared to see him just watching him, the stupid smirk gone now. His cat eyes regarded him, just looking at him, gauging his expression for answers.

“You want to know the truth? I’ve thought about going to graduate school to work on a MFA,” he said, shrugging. “My major’s in Communication with a minor in English Literature. You know, my mom’s an English teacher and I always thought that I might teach or write.”

Jensen raised his eyebrow, looking at him. “You serious?”

“Yeah, I’m totally serious,” Jared said, taking a deep breath. “Pro basketball will be great; but I know I got a shelf life of just a few years. Sure, I might be lucky and get a nice contract – but then what? Do commercials for the rest of my life? Go on reality shows as a has-been? That’s kind of dull, you know? I really don’t go in for that celebrity athlete bullshit.”

Jensen didn’t know what to say. He leaned back in his booth and looked over Jared. That was really messing with his head. Just when he thought he had the kid figured out, Jared threw him a curve ball out of nowhere.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Jensen said, softly.

“Not a lot of people care enough to ask. They just want to know about my stats and what NBA team I want to join.” He said, licking his bottom lip. “So it’s my turn. Would you ever consider going out with me?”

“I, uh…” Jensen took a deep breath. “I’m not sure how to answer that.”

“Well, it’s a simple enough answer – you say yes or no.”

Jensen grinned at him. “No comment.”

“I can see that you’re going to be a tough nut to crack, Jensen Ross Ackles.”

Jensen raised his eyebrows. “How’d you know my middle name?”

“I did my homework on you, too,” Jared said, grinning. “I know a lot about you. You did your undergrad in Physical Therapy and now you’re doing grad work in Pediatric Orthopedics. You work for the paper because Tommy asked you to. You do your clinical rotation at Austin General three times a week. Everyone says that you’re going to be Chief of Staff before you’re thirty-five. You came out when you were 19-years old. You won a spot as a Mayo Clinic Fellow but you turned it down because you wanted to be close to your family. You dated Christian Kane but broke up because he wanted to go on tour with his band and you couldn’t leave – but you two are like best friends still.”

Jensen couldn’t help but bark out a short laugh. “I don’t think even Welling knows that much about me.”

“I really like you, Jensen. I begged Tommy to give you the interview assignment even though you didn’t cover sports,” Jared murmured, smiling shyly. “And I had to tell him why I wanted you to do the interview.”

“Huh. Well, that explains why Welling was such a bitch about it,” Jensen said, smiling at him. “I, uh…didn’t know. I mean, we never met before and—“

“You don’t remember me, do you?” Jared said, his eyes widening. Jensen shook his head. “I had a bad fall in my freshmen year. They rushed me to the hospital. You were on duty in the ER and you put the cast on me. You were concentrating so hard on the cast, making sure everything was right. You never really looked at me the whole time; but I stared at you the whole time I was there.”

Jensen vaguely remembered. “Man, I’m sorry I don’t remember; I pulled a double shift in the ER. I was volunteering, trying to fulfill one of my requirements for the program.”

“It’s just so funny that we never crossed paths again,” Jared said, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry for being such a jerk. I just wanted your attention.”

Jensen bit his inner cheek, looking at him. “Well, you have it now, Jared.” He dropped his voice. “What’re you going to do about it?”

“Ask me to come back to your apartment and I’ll show you.”

Jensen smirked, pushing his glasses up. “My answer is yes.”

“Yeah?” Jared said, eyes widening. “To what though?”

“Yes to everything you asked.”


End file.
